Comparison of 50 Shades of Gray and Twilight. Shock! 50 Shades of Gray is just Twilight for adults! Carrick Gray Vs

The phenomenal success of the literary brainchild of the same name by a British writer E. L. James It’s simple to explain - it was this 50-year-old lady who had the audacity and ingenuity to sell, under the guise of a book, the most ordinary porn fan fiction to women of Balzac’s age all over the world. Yes, yes, "50 shades of gray" was originally a fanfiction for beloved "Twilight". It was called "Master of the Universe", and the main characters were Edward and Bella. However, unlike young girls, who are not very surprised by this kind of writing (in the same AO3, one of the largest fan fiction archives, you can’t come across such a thing), for mature aunties the erotic BDSM novel became a real revelation, making one tremble, it seemed dampened instincts and unraveling the most secret desires.

Moving down, I swallow him deeper. Ha! My inner goddess rejoices. I'll do it.

And then it’s a matter of technology and competent marketing. The popularity and discussion of the book grew like a snowball, two sequels were quickly released, and then a natural film adaptation arrived, initially doomed to success. Some will go out of curiosity, some will go for a laugh, some will go in anticipation of a sensual erotic melodrama (and BDSM sex scenes), and some will be dragged by force. One way or another, two sequels are already in development, and we need to accept the fact that the film will become an important media event.

He barely touched my hand, and my hormones were already going wild.

Let’s say right away that the producers approached the film adaptation of a potential blockbuster with all seriousness. Placed at the helm Sam Taylor-Johnson ("Becoming John Lennon"), sat behind the camera Seamus McGarvey, just a second, operator "The Avengers" And « » , became a composer Danny Elfman- and so on and so forth. A real team of professionals who cannot cheat even if they want. Therefore, one should not be surprised that from the technical side the film was shot almost flawlessly. The soundtrack, which is likely to top the Billboard charts, is also noteworthy.

Never trust men who dance well.

The movie tells the story of the beginning of the relationship between the innocent and dreamy student Anastasia Steele and the handsome billionaire philanthropist Christian Gray, who practices BDSM. The film ends mid-sentence, literally cut by the leather belt of the upcoming sequel, so nothing more important will be there. Although the book was inspired by " Twilight", the film adaptation rather looks to the side "Nine and a Half Weeks" Adriana Lyna, however, without the metaphors and symbolism of the latter. The stumbling block, as is often the case, was the ego of writer E. L. James, who had too much power in the making of the film and especially in the writing of the script. Because no matter how many millions of copies a fan fiction sells, it still won’t become high-quality literary material, especially if you transfer ridiculous dialogues onto the screen almost letter by letter.

He kisses my neck. I tilt my head to the side to give him more room. Sitting down, Christian slowly pulls my jeans and panties down my legs.

The consequences were not long in coming: timid attempts to sit on all the chairs and tell a sensual story of sexual relations between a man and a woman were trampled underfoot by the thick leg of the source’s mother, who instead enriched the film with an idiotic plot, unconvincing behavior of the characters and the general absurdity of what was happening. No wonder the leading actor Jamie Dornan There are two facial expressions throughout the entire film: “God, what am I saying” and “God, what am I doing.” Dakota Johnson, we admit, is very sweet and convincing in the role of a student exploring carnal pleasures, but there is no point in this if phrases are put into the mouths of the heroes, from which the entire auditorium bursts into laughter.

Then comes the most important flaw in the film adaptation: there is simply no chemistry between the main actors. “No” from the word “none”. At all. That’s why all the sex scenes look forced, forced and almost as sterile as the protagonist’s office. And this is even despite the fact that there are at most 10 minutes of them there. Forty-year-old women will see more soft porn on the Ren TV channel after midnight.

Please don’t hit me,” I whisper pleadingly. He furrows his brows, widens his eyes, blinks a couple of times.

Too ridiculous for drama, too timid for BDSM erotica, the film was ashamed of its target audience who came to see “this”, but did not offer anything in return. Empty, helpless and pathetic, no matter which way you look at it. After all, it is forgivable for an erotic melodrama to have a bad plot, but it is no longer permissible to be unerotic.

The success story of the book “50 Shades of Gray” itself is worthy of becoming a literary plot, although this plot would be best suited for evil social satire. Erika Leonard, a formerly obscure Twilight fan and fan fiction writer, is now the world's most sought-after purveyor of erotic fiction.

The buzz around this story has been steadily increasing since last year, when an erotic novel by a certain E.L. James entitled "50 Shades of Grey" was published in Britain. E.L. James is a pseudonym; in fact, the creator of this stunning read is named Erica Leonard. The title of “50 Shades of Gray” contains an untranslatable but utterly trivial pun: main character bears the common surname Gray, which means "grey".

The plot is simple. American literature student Anastasia Steele is sent to interview young billionaire Christian Gray; publication must take place in the student newspaper. The girl begins to experience an irresistible attraction to Gray, but at the same time there is something about the interlocutor that scares her. Having difficulty coping with the influx of feelings, Anastasia talks with the mysterious rich man through a tree stump, and then remains confident that the interview did not work out, and hopes that she will not see Gray again. However, soon the billionaire and the student meet in a hardware store: Anastasia managed to get a job there, and Christian came for ropes and fastenings. Why, one wonders, does the head of a transnational corporation need ropes and fastenings and why does he buy them himself? Soon Anastacia (at the moment still maintaining her virginity) and her friend go to the billionaire along with a photographer, deciding to supplement the interview with a photo shoot.

Then everything happens that dear readers have already guessed. Gray turns out to be a consistent adherent of sexual practices, which are referred to by the umbrella term BDSM. The relationship between a billionaire and a student is built on the principle of instruction: the extravagant rich man reveals to her more and more new know-how in the not very widely advertised area where he is familiar with eyes closed(and sometimes, as we understand, with tied ones). The narrative, replete with details that are attractive to many, moves from the “basics” to the real hard stuff. IN " game room“Christian has in store not only whips and ropes, but also much more severe objects, in particular the notorious cable ties, which prudent reviewers will more than once recall to Erica Leonard. To top it all off, Gray demands that Anastasia sign a contract according to which he will have complete control over all her actions, and she will have to obey her partner unquestioningly.

Probably every second person reading all this has already begun to get irritated and perplexed: why pay attention to some idiotic trashy sadomasochistic novel, the likes of which are a dime a dozen? We can only agree: the novel is really trashy, and there are really tons of texts like it. However, sad as it may be for the champions of high culture, there are facts that turn the unassuming London scribblings into a non-illusory phenomenon. Roughly speaking, there are two facts: firstly, the wild popularity and unprecedented commercial success of this opus, and secondly, its rather unexpected and very funny origin.

London housewife Erica Leonard, who for some reason took the dull pseudonym E.L. James, began her bright path on fan sites dedicated to the cult saga of Stephenie Meyer “Twilight”. Here, in order to more adequately understand the phenomenon, it is worth closing your eyes and trying to imagine as clearly as possible a fan culture of this kind, its entire mind-blowing world, full of memes and fetishes, recognizable only to the initiated. Which very often, if not in most cases, are the same age as our Erica, namely ladies under 50 (and older). So, Erica wrote a fanfic, the heroes of which were, of course, Edward Cullen and Bella Swan, called it “Master of the Universe” and posted it on the appropriate resources (and, note, under a completely different pseudonym, which translates as “ice dragon of the Snow Queen”) . Interaction with grateful readers led to the text being rewritten; instead of the heroes of the vampire saga, ordinary people, who, however, were doing what is described above.

The wandering of the text across various sites and social networks incredibly quickly ensured his fame. Having collected a monstrous harvest of likes, Ms. Leonard’s work reached the publishers, and then the final breakthrough happened: the book began to sell in crazy numbers. Wasting no time, Erica wrote two sequels - “50 Shades Darker” and “50 Shades Lighter”, and by July 2012, more than 20 million copies of the resulting trilogy had been sold worldwide.

To this we must add one industrial-technical circumstance: the book owes its successful sales primarily to the fact that it was actively distributed in electronic form. Fifty Shades of Gray became the first release to sell a million copies on the Amazon Kindle.

You can meditate for as long as you like on the new formula for success, which looks, accordingly, as follows: “successfully rewritten fan fiction + removal of conventional sexual taboos + attractiveness for schoolgirls and middle-aged and elderly women + social networks + electronic version of the publication.” But the fact is clear: the formula worked. And in this fact, one can probably see nothing more than one of the signs of the imperceptibly approaching future - the same one about which we have long been warned. There is certainly no shortage of shades of gray to be expected in this glorious era.

I accidentally found out that the pseudo-vampire pseudo-passions of “Twilight” didn’t end there. Inspired by the far-fetched problems of coexistence between a human and a vegetarian vampire, a certain E. L. James burst out with a creative - or not very creative - romance novel. Instead of a pomaded bloodsucker, the reader is offered an equally glamorous sadist pervert. Otherwise, judging by the reviews, attributes such as overwhelming sexuality, wealth, universal worship and adoration of the female sex remain with the newly-minted Edward-Christian. Bella's image is even more easily recognizable: a gray-gray “mouse”, which only according to vampire perverted concepts SUDDENLY turns out to be The One. And, just like Bella, the Main Character does not suffer from intelligence, intelligence, outstanding appearance, kindness or anything at all. At least, I didn’t find a single note about Anastasia’s personal qualities in any review. However, it’s my fault: the Main Heroine is pathologically shy and shies away from guys (except for the Coolest One - you need to keep the Mary-Sue brand). Hello Bella. What doesn’t stop Anastacia from going to bed with a scary perverted vampire on the hundredth (?) page. Hello logic. Pay attention! The main heroine, aka Mary Sue, aka Bella, aka Anastasia, cannot have simple name. Olya, Katya (Kat, if in a foreign style), Susie, Jen - this is boring and vulgar. It is much more romantic to name a girl Anastacia, Isabella, Christianide, Almahabra or - a classic of the genre! - Reclamation Dark. Or Steele. But not now about the signs of MS. Unlike the romantically inclined Myers, James generously peppered the book (a trilogy, oh my God!) with sex. They say that reusable descriptions of the process are very, very monotonous, I don’t know - I wasn’t even enough for the first part of the “masterpiece,” which I honestly admit. I don’t understand otherwise - how can you make a book out of sex alone?! A full-fledged, readable book?! I'm not against sex and I like to flip through some porn story when the mood strikes me. Well, it’s no worse than the average porno, and the plot is just as simple - jerk off, nothing more. I don’t mind watching beautiful erotica - “Bitter Moon”, “Eyes Wide Shut”... “The Cage” is also there, to some extent (erotic art house?). But to disguise masturbation as serious, meaningful literature? This is already in the realm of fantasy, like calling “Twilight” a deeply thought-out drama. Why is Fifty Shades so popular? Reason one: money, power, beautiful life, embodied in Prince Charming. Rich Pinocchio Christian Gray SUDDENLY falls in love with the awkward little girl and puts a car, stones and other small but insanely expensive feminine joys at her feet. Everyone wants to dream about something like this. How jealous your friends would be! Reason two: sex. It seems clear, but I would like to go into more detail. What is presented here is not a specific male fuck, where it is relished to describe how He pours lubricant into the vagina without even playing around and shoves various toys into all the holes (or voluptuously cuts tender places with a knife - a sadist, after all). But this is not a cloying “feminine” version of “a little physical” love, where “his broad, muscular shoulders resembled mountains,” but “her beautiful body sank exhausted into a stern but tender embrace” (although something else, I suspect, is still was taken). The author chose golden mean: like “I’ll fuck you in the mouth”, but also like “butterflies in the stomach”. In addition, all this is served with the seasoning of expensive, sophisticated, but, of course, very delicate BDSM. Again, I’ll draw an analogy with “Twilight”: Edward is a vampire, and this seems to be very, very bad, but in fact the reader gets a brilliant cute little thing with bonuses like super strength and eternal youth. In “Fifty Shades” it’s the same: it seems like the Main Character is a sadist and a pervert, but multiple orgasms just pour out, as if from a cornucopia, on our shy little one. In addition, there is a reason to admire yourself, an innocent victim, in a sexy black outfit. Reason three: crisis of feminism? I don’t know because I don’t recognize feminism as such. It is wrong to put a man and a woman on the same level - we are equal, but not the same. And this is clearly reflected in the novel: the dominant man provides for the woman who takes care of the family and children (yes, this is the kind of prosaic HE that awaits the heroes of Fifty Shades). If we put aside the flair of falling in love, a man takes sex from a woman, a woman takes provision from a man. And in the book, both the first and the second are presented at the highest level! Reason four: lack of the first three points in the life of the fair half of humanity. The novel is primarily popular among young girls who are still digesting the image of Prince Charming in their minds, or ladies of Balzac’s age who, by their age, have already earned indigestion from beggar “princes” in holey socks. Overall: do I recommend reading it? No, it's a waste of time. Do I recommend watching it? I am sure that for those who have a healthy sense of humor, the porn analogue of “Twilight” will give many reasons to laugh.

What is the novel "50 Shades of Gray" about and what was not included in the film?

Moscow. February 13. website - A film based on the 2011 erotic novel “50 Shades of Grey,” written by the British woman E.L., has been released in Russia. James. This is the case when the film is better than the book, but still not good enough to waste time and money on.

Original source

The book "50 Shades of Gray" began as fan fiction for the vampire saga "Twilight". Former TV studio employee Erica Leonard (real name E.L. James) was reading the Twilight Saga novels by Stephenie Meyer, and then decided to write something herself. Soon, she decided to abandon the images of the chaste vampire Edward and his sad girlfriend Bella in favor of the liberated businessman Christian Gray and the not very self-confident student Anastasia Steele.

The woman posted what she had written on the Internet, and the story, unexpectedly for her, became popular - so much so that E.L. James wrote two sequels to the novel - “Fifty Shades Darker” and “Fifty Shades Freed.” The books in the series were translated into 52 languages ​​and sold more than 100 million copies worldwide (in terms of sales speed, the novels overtook books from the Harry Potter series and the same Twilight).

Leonard later admitted that the book was the product of a "midlife crisis." “All my fantasies are there,” she said in an interview.

Leonard's fantasies, apparently, were embodied in sex with elements of BDSM, because these are the sexual practices preferred by the main character of the book, Christian Gray. In "50 Shades of Gray" there are a large number of sex scenes, including the use of handcuffs, rope, whips, and so on.

Be that as it may, the success of "50 Shades of Gray" is difficult to explain rationally. The book is written in monstrous language and is full of all sorts of cliches from pulp novels. The plot is banal. Rich man with perfect body and a foggy past that either attracts or repels the heroine. A modest and inexperienced heroine who falls head over heels in love with a man, wants to change him and, of course, changes him.

Journalists called the book “porn for housewives” and openly made fun of E.L.’s writing style. James. She said that she didn’t care: she didn’t see her novel as a work of literature claiming to be a classic - it was just a “fascinating” and “passionate” love story.

Screen adaptation

As often happens with literary phenomena, they decided to film the novel. The film "50 Shades of Gray" had an impressive PR campaign, in which, among others, the most popular singer Beyoncé was involved. The soundtrack to the film also included two of her songs, including a new version of the long-time hit Crazy in Love. The level of anticipation for the film was high: the film's trailer broke records for views on YouTube and gave rise to many parodies (one of the best - with featuring Steve Buscemi), and hardware stores began preparing for increased demand for tape, rope and cable ties.

The film follows the book for the most part. In case you don’t know, the premise is this: a week before the university graduation, the philological maiden Anastasia Steele, at the request of a sick journalist friend, goes to interview the young millionaire Christian Gray. They soon begin a relationship, but Gray doesn't want "romance" - he wants a connection based on dominance and submission. He tries to persuade the inexperienced Anastacia to sign a contract under which he becomes her “dominant” and she becomes his “submissive” (sic!), but can, if necessary, stop him using “safe words”. The lack of a signed contract that sets out the terms of their relationship and the “limits of what is acceptable” does not stop Christian Gray from periodically tying up his lover and spanking her bottom.

It is known that E.L. James kept the filming process under control, sometimes even excessively. The director of the film, ex-member of the Young British Artists movement Sam Taylor-Johnson (who had previously directed only one full-length film - a very nice biopic of John Lennon), admitted that James sometimes unbalanced her. Sources familiar with the filming explained: the author of the book simply could not understand that not everything that was written could and should be transferred to the screen.

The film is devoid of the heroine’s internal monologues - yes, Anastasia’s “inner goddess” is silent. Viewers were spared most of the cheesy correspondence between the main characters. It is expected that screenwriter Kelly Marcel omitted or changed many moments that caused sincere bewilderment (for example, when reading the book, it was difficult to believe that during her entire study at the institute the heroine never got a laptop).

The character of Anastacia has become less flat; compared to the book prototype, she even has some individuality. The rare funny moments and interesting finds of the film are connected specifically with Anastasia (thanks to actress Dakota Johnson): be it a drunken call to Christian from the queue for the toilet or her facial expression in a photograph with Gray printed in the newspaper. As for the dominant millionaire played by Jamie Dornan, he can only be praised for beautiful eyes(and this is not his merit).

Dialogues of the level "Why are you doing this?" - “Because that’s who I am!” will make anyone feel embarrassed for the filmmakers. Despite the fact that during the PR campaign the audience was prepared for something extraordinary (the slogan “Curious?”), what is happening on the screen is so boring that the two hours that the film runs turn into torture. The declared sensuality in the film seems to be completely absent, but this should have become its main attractive element.

This is a more or less standard melodrama, and if it were not for the status of a literary source and the film’s large-scale PR campaign, it is unlikely that the pre-sale volumes of tickets would have been so impressive. Basically, to borrow a Christian Gray phrase, sometimes it's better to say your safe word before the movie even starts.

Anna Laletina

Culture

The other day, queues lined up in all cinemas wanting to see the film adaptation of the scandalous novel by E.L. James "Fifty Shades of Grey". “MS” tried to find out whether it was worth reading the romantic-erotic trilogy and buying tickets to the film premiere in advance?

DUE TO THE AGE RESTRICTIONS FOR THE FILM, THIS ARTICLE IS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR READING BY PERSONS UNDER 18 YEARS OF AGE

Twilight for adults
The basis for the three-volume novel was fan fiction* on a fan site for the Twilight saga, written by a user under the pseudonym "Ice Dragon" Snow Queen"(Snowqueen's Icedragon).
The main characters of amateur word creation were Edward Cullen and Bella Swan, who inspired the fan to think about the intimate side of the lives of lovers. It was the relationship between a vampire and a human, invented by the American writer Stephenie Meyer, and the erotic notes of “The Snow Queen,” read more than once by the Englishwoman Erica Mitchell, that inspired her to create “Fifty Shades of Gray” under the pseudonym E.L. James. Later, sequels to the novel were released: Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed.
Exciting the senses
IN original title works “Fifty Shades of Grey”, unlike the Russian translation, “Grey” denotes not so much a color as the surname of the main character. But it was not chosen by chance: gray is an intermediate shade between black, associated with evil, unhappiness and negativity, and white - a symbol of goodness, purity and innocence. This is a reflection of the dual nature of any person.
As a result, the revealing trilogy, claiming to be the sexual revolution of our time, strives (yes, even more) to liberate society, and - traditionally for discussions below the belt - becomes topic No. 1.

Do you need it?
Fans of the text are attracted to the detailed BDSM games of the main characters. Cruel erotica, woven into a simple plot, makes you blush, but not everyone becomes a repulsive factor.
So if you haven't read Shades, but don't accept overly literal depictions of sensual scenes, you should probably save your sanity and give preference to works with more clear and recognized artistic value. Dropping out of the mainstream in this case is a much smaller loss than regretting time, which traditionally will not be returned.

JK Rowling says she hasn't read E. L. James' novel because she has no interest in “pornographic literature”

Critical carrot and stick method
The first readers of the novel were residents of the USA and Great Britain. Instantly becoming a bestseller, the work is translated into more than fifty languages ​​and spreads around the world with a circulation of over one hundred million. Such interest in the book does not go unnoticed: critics immediately pour their conflicting reviews on it, thereby attracting more and more interest to the novel.
Some call Fifty Shades a “saccharine literary cliche” (The Telegraph), others call it “shameful entertainment”, adding that the book encourages not to perceive the subjugation of women as shame (Ledger-Enquirer), and some even manage to see the evolved genre of ladies' pulp novel.
One of the most devastating comments was left by British writer, Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie: he awarded the book the status of the worst of all existing ones and compared it with “Twilight”, which against the backdrop of “Shades” looks like Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace”.

And laughter and sin
The film adaptation of the book left no less ambivalent reactions than the novel itself. The first reviews slightly shocked the world community, which had only seen the trailer. Thus, it turned out that the pre-premiere screening at the international Berlin festival did not excite, but made the audience laugh: for most of the film, the audience openly laughed at what was happening on the screen. After watching the film, German critics said that even children could watch it with complete peace of mind.
In Russia, an “18+” restriction was imposed on the film, while not even all adults will be able to see the sensational film adaptation. Thus, in Ingushetia, Dagestan and other regions with a predominantly Muslim population, they generally refused to show this film on the big screen.
At the same time, in France, “Fifty Shades” is shown with the “12+” mark. This decision was commented on by the President of the Rating Committee of the French Ministry of Culture, Jean-François Marie: “This is not a film that can shock anyone. An ordinary melodrama, one might even call it cheesy.”

Who wants to become a millionaire?
The trilogy allowed E. L. James not only to gain the status of an influential writer, but also to significantly increase his budget. Will the film crew manage to become as rich as the main character of the film, millionaire Christian Gray?
On the first day of showing in Russia alone, the film’s box office revenue amounted to 157 million rubles, and over the weekend “Fifty Shades of Gray” earned 700 million rubles in our country. It is also known that the international box office of the film approached $240 million. It is noteworthy that the budget of the film itself is only $40 million.
It is possible to achieve such impressive results despite the low rating of the film on various portals. In general, viewers give it no more than 5 points out of 10, but the score increases with each day of release. So, on the first day of showing on Kinopoisk, the film received 2.48 points, and five days later it already earned 4.66 points.

PLAYLIST
Music test
The soundtracks received special attention: the music chosen for the film was appreciated even by those who gave the film the lowest rating.
Perhaps the most memorable tunes were the song “Haunted” and a new version of the song “Crazy In Love”, which has established itself as the leitmotif of the entire film, by singer Beyonce. Also in the TOP is Sia, who recorded “Salted Wound” specifically for “shades,” which melodiously describes Christian Gray’s mental struggle. The Rolling Stones with their song “Beast of Burden” and Frank Sinatra with their song “Witchcraft” found themselves on the next wave of popularity.

Also eligible to be added to your playlist:
Annie Lennox - I Put a Spell On You
Laura Welsh - Undiscovered
The Weeknd - Earned It
Ellie Goulding - Love Me Like You Do (Love me the way you know how)
Danny Elfman - Ana and Christian (Ana and Christian)

50 shades of opinions
“After I read the book, I thought I wouldn’t live to see the premiere, but posts on the Internet with footage from the filming simply saved me! Despite the fact that many scenes were cut, the film is amazing! And the actors did everything right. Now let's wait for "50 Shades Darker".
“I looked, the book is hundreds of times better! The film flew by unnoticed and was not liked. To be honest, the only one who made me happy was Jamie!”
“How could it be possible not to transfer the most important, piquant and sensual moments from the book to the film? How could you leave out all of Ana's horror and admiration for Gray? Anyone who has not read the novel does not understand why such scandalous statements are being made about him. Personally, I’m upset: it was sad to see people leaving the cinema before the end of the film.”